Poetry

in the language of flowers

all your summertimes reprised in G major, everybody dying backwards in Technicolor just for you. aren’t you just so lucky? how the flowers never remember what did or didn’t happen above the staircase that day. though in the language of flowers, the only word that rhymes with sister is slaughter: their pollen flushed faces turning toward sunnier and sunnier slaughterhouses.

Neoliberalism

The cricket bat he scored 300 runs with,
his bronze-medal rose from a local fair,
his favorite cap—all given
the barcodes of oblivion.

Skin Deep

on Fridays I don’t know if I’m more jealous of Loba’s curves
or the Gatsbyesque gluttony of Rampart’s silk skins that trigger memories
of every sari I abandoned to flee home with two suitcases Rampart
is everyone I’m scared you imagine after I leave

Two Poems

fairytale posing as apocalypse
what would a queer story be
without fungus-wearing flesh eaters,
bashing in the heads of civilians

Catherine (with a “C”)

catherine has never met a coward that she was too afraid to love / and when
she says “love,” she means lose / and when she says “lose,” she means
misplaced, open-mouth / chewed up penalties / places bets on boundaries /